Dakshina’s “Sokolow’s Gems” pays tribute to Anna Sokolow
Daniel Phoenix Singh pays homage to pioneering Jewish American choreographer Anna Sokolow
It was the chest-beating that captivated Daniel Phoenix Singh.
In the late, pioneering Jewish-American choreographer Anna Sokolow’s Kaddish, a Jewish prayer of mourning, “the dancer beats her chest as part of the mourning ritual,” Singh says. “That’s also a ritual that’s very common in India.”
Encountering Kaddish several years after emigrating to the states in 1990 left an indelible impression on the Indian-American. He was so enraptured with Sokolow’s work that for nearly a decade Singh has partnered with the Sokolow Foundation to regularly perform her works with his company Dakshina.
“Not only was she doing social commentary, but she was doing social commentary on works that are relevant in the present time,” says Singh, noting that Sokolow was addressing gay rights decades before anyone else. Singh, who is gay, brings up another commonality between Sokolow’s works and those of Indian dance: the use of hand gestures. “It was interesting for me to find a modern choreographer who was using her hands so expressively, as opposed to just letting them be appendages that hang at the bottom of your arm.”
This Saturday, Dakshina will perform a program of “Sokolow’s Gems,” including Magritte, Magritte, inspired by the popular Belgian painter, at The Clarice on the campus the University of Maryland, Singh’s alma mater. The following day, the company will present noted Bharata Natyam performer and choreographer Rama Vaidyanathan in Chitravali, a solo work inspired by the tradition of miniature paintings of myths from Indian literature.
Art inspired by art may seem trivial in a time of increasing violence and incendiary rhetoric against immigrants and minorities, but it serves a purpose. “People might question why we do the arts in times of crisis,” Singh says. “I want to say that we’re not doing art as a luxury — we’re doing art as a social critique and a statement. And we hope that people can find some catharsis.”
Dakshina’s “Sokolow’s Gems” is Saturday, July 16, at 7:30 p.m., and the Rama Vaidyanathan and Company’s “Chitravali” is Sunday, July 17, at 4 p.m., in the Dance Theatre of the Clarice at the University of Maryland in College Park. Suggested donation is $25 for both programs. Call 301-405-ARTS or visit theclarice.umd.edu.
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